Sunlight clawed at my eyes, making me duck my gaze from the windows even with the heavy tint of my glasses doing their level best to ease the burden the light put on my damaged eyes. Turning around, I came chest to chest with a tall Goldilocks look alike. A sneer spread across my lips, angry wolfish eyes shifting like a predator’s as I took him in, in his entirety. Tall, short and cropped platinum blonde hair framed his smooth skin and baby face, gelled and swept back to keep his piercing blue eyes front and center. His suit fit him well, accentuating a nicely toned body.

  My fingers tensed. Forearms rippled, thick corded muscle vibrating in anticipation, looking to invent an excuse and filling out the loose sleeves of my suit coat.

  The crisp uniform smelled of fresh steam and lavender oils, a perfect posture keeping wrinkles from the tailored navy three piece with white trims.

  The surprise and irritation were obvious on his face. I knew he wanted me to say something.

  Twisting, I shoved him aside, pushing him with my shoulder and sending him stumbling back. Those piercing blue orbs multiplied even as I turned away from the lockers. Dozens of bright blue eyes and perfect prep kids stared me down as I walked away; kicking in a plywood fire-door leading to the bathroom.

  My palms scraped against the tiled sink station, rough calloused skin overlapped with scars. Places I had lost pieces of myself, a chunk of palm here, a patch of burned out skin there. Slash after slash everywhere. Raising my gaze I stared into the dead eyed monster that haunted me.

  Long dark hair with copper strands and subtle curves cascaded down my shoulders and flared wildly, unkempt and uncared for. The signs of an abused body were visible in the frayed and damaged hair and occasional whites that littered my teen locks. The proof of someone who took everything his body had to give and made it keep giving stared back.

  Sweeping a hand over the bridge of his nose, he swept the sunglasses away, tensing against the tremble in his bones that made him barely avoid crushing and dropping them all at once.

  Sunken eyes were set into deep purple rings that never went away, bloody veins that seemed more colorful than the striking green gold hazel of the face in the mirror. Yet for all the color in the world, they were dull and empty. The skin between his eyes, the bridge of his nose, eyelids, and corners of his eyes were completely discolored by pale scar tissue, jagged slashes covering his eyes from thousands of tiny pieces of glass that exploded into them a long time ago.

  I stretched, rolling my shoulders, the man I am trying not to be mimicking me in mockery in every way except one. He smiled at me, lips curled back and sharp teeth bared like he knew I was going to fail, that he would not stay in the mirror for long, as if my fight was going to be a last gasp wild child going down swinging at the air.

  I watched his powerful arms cross over each other, increasing the man I know I am not’s mass out of the corner of my eye even as I left him behind.

  And that is where you will stay! You are trapped, not me. I won!

  The whine of electrical currents coursing through wires rattled through me; a horrible frequency making my teeth grind right before the horrifically loud high pitched bell screamed in my ear.

  Swinging wide, I snarled, teeth bared and spittle flying from my fangs. Powder and pain blew out over my knuckles as drywall broke and the bell hit the floor with a heavy dull thud.

  “Fuck you!” I spat the words, pissed off and kicking the hunk of metal for wronging me.

  The world went black infinite undefined darkness spread out before me and below me. A heavy metal rattle filled my ears. A weight around my neck trapped me and I had to keep going. I won’t him overtake me.

  I ran. My legs pumped, my boots punished the hard floor. I shut my eyes and refused the blackness the satisfaction. I felt the chains reverberate up my spine with every clink. Desperation ran ragged in my lungs with every click and clack as the figure swallowed by the dark on the other end of our bond kept pace without ever speeding up. The sound never grew further away, the chain never tensed, and the time between footfalls never changed from lazy and indulgent.

  I burst through a door, stepping back into the hallways of my school. My neck spun on a swivel, my eyes narrowing as I snarled at a girl who tried to get out of class after me, making her back up and throw her hands up in a show of surrender.

  Turning my nose up at her, I continued my march, scratching at my throat, trying to pry the skin off and get at the metal underneath.

  My fingers wrapped around the cold metal handle of a double door. I heaved, flexing my shoulder as I felt the joint try to pop, and it glided open. Dozens of chairs lined up before me and I stepped to my desk before the dark swallowed me again. The click clacking of a monster nipping at my heels set me running again. I knew I couldn’t let him catch me or, worse, overtake me.

  My lungs burned. I felt sick and I wanted to puke up all the adrenaline running through my veins. My legs begged me to stop just before I fell forward, stumbling through an unseen doorway and ending up against the wall outside English.

  Class after class I was thrown into that void. Each time he made me run, I was getting slower. I was a mess. Red lines wreathed my throat like a collar of thorns. Sweat soaked through the black fabric of my dress shirt. A button ripped off my blazer. I was barely keeping my head above water and I knew it.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  I turned my hateful eyes on the golden children surrounding me, contempt filling me as I watched how easily it came to them, pretty perfect people who were made for this.

  Then I turned and slid down the wall, staring out the window I had started my day before, the dusk no longer hurting me as my time came.

  I let the red sky soothe me senses as the blood of titans stained the atmosphere. I closed my eyes and accepted the vision and the serenity it brought, and when my eyes slowly opened I winced as the sun burned me, scorching my retinas and forcing me to recoil.

  I slammed into some tall blonde looking fuckwit. His eyes were filled with hate for me. I could sense it. I could feel the malice emanating off him even as he smiled and pretended he gave a damn.

  “What the fuck do you think? I’m fine, asshole. Stay out of my way.”

  My muscles bunched as my heels twisted and dug into the floor. I shoved him hard, slamming my palms into his gut and chest, throwing my weight into him, his back slamming into the lockers with a heavy hollow clang.

  I stumbled off to the bathroom to wash out my eyes and clear my head. Keeping my head ducked, I avoided looking at him. I did not need to see his smile, those delighted eyes. Instead, I focused on my body, my real body, not that demon trick of light. Dark stains and dried blood blended into the fabric of my sports jacket. Brown dirt marks touched along my chest and the collar was steeped a dark crimson.

  A deep breathe and I focused on my hands, feeling the way they writhed against the tile I leaned on the skin shifting unsubtly as scars and callouses smoothed and thickened flickering between fantasy and reality.

  Pushing off from the sink and through the door, I looked up and ran my fingers through my hair as my ears rang. A horrible ringing sound that grew in volume until I felt like I would scream filled my head before it was slowly replaced with a mocking song.

  “I see and you see. What we’re meant to be. Oh you know it and so do I. So run this road because of what’s out there. Follow me, I’ll follow you. Run from me, I’ll run to you.”

  I was in the dark again swallowed by the black sea and I was getting so tired. It hurt so much to run from him.

  Again I grounded myself breaking out of the void to feel a warmth around my arm and the scent of desire in my nose.

  I watched myself stalk out from my line of sight as my vision was lifted from my eyes, an out of body experience overtaking me. A pretty girl with straight platinum hair glanced nervously, her hand in mine. One last suspicious scan of the hallways and she pulled me with her into the ladies room. A charming smile on my lips, false life in my eyes and a soothing chuckle in my chords.

  I watched as we disappeared behind the door from my sight. I watched a girl walk out, uniform disheveled, makeup messed and smeared, hair darkened to a near midnight black, and just below a bruising hickey was another dark bruising mark; two evenly spaced patches of clear unblemished pale skin surrounded by purple bruising in the shape of a skull, the memento mori emblazoned in my touch.

  I followed her out, my gaze sweeping up to stare at my disembodied viewpoint. “We could have fun if you just let me in, brother.”

  I never got a moment to consider the offer. I was thrown back into the dark. My legs barely lifted I couldn’t run or jog. So I just walked, only taking a step when I heard him step forward. I glanced back, feeling the slack chain behind me. I still couldn’t see him, but I knew he was getting closer. He never spoke, but I could feel him mocking me in his tireless pursuit.

  Then I saw the window.

  I blinked and the sun burned me, sending me staggering back and falling against some light haired dumbass that could not keep out of my way.

  I watched him sneer, anger clear on his face, but my ears failed me as he spoke dull ringing filling them instead.

  My vision failed me as I was pushed out of my body, forced to be an observer. He gestured and spoke with loud exaggerated movements, setting me on edge, triggering a decade of reflexes that my body didn’t respond to even slightly. Then I followed him and his coterie of four. They led a smiling black haired boy out the fire doors and I followed, hands on the back of my head, looking entirely at peace. The boys rounded a corner into an alleyway; the painful ringing increasing in volume trying to mask every sound; I turned the corner too, my vision failing to follow.

  I heard someone yelp over the ringing. I heard heavy wet thuds as the noise grew, the dull annoyance turning into a scream that made me want to beg for it to stop. Then all at once it cut off and the music came back, mocking and taunting with its one two repetition. I came back around the corner alone. Blood covered my hands, skin sheared off my knuckles, and long animalistic claws dripped red off my fingers.

  I felt the warm blood on my hands. I felt how right it was right before the collar choked me again and I was stumbling forward in the dark, but it just wasn’t enough. For every step I took he countered me with two. The chains got lighter and looser, easier to carry by the second as that clicking increased into a bang, heavy feet caving in the earth behind me.

  A heavy hand wrapped around my shoulder and I spun, arm cocked and ready to unload on my tormentor even through the deathly fatigue, but no one was there. I felt my feet dragging forward; my head snapping around looked beyond and, seeing a tall naked and pale man, my perfect doppelganger if you excluded the massive curved claws, lipless mouth, and pitch black eyes. His mouth was set in a permanent skeleton smile, rows of teeth visible through his cheeks.

  I tensed, my entire body priming to explode into rage. And his eyes lit up in delight. I raced forward, sitting up fast and slamming my forehead against an unfortunately placed support beam, bouncing off and slamming my head back into the mattress.

  “Fuck…” I exhaled a slow pathetic lament even as the others joined in, quick to try and get my attention before the others could.

  “Morning. Finally… welcome back… wow that was a nasty one.”

  Dozens of greetings overlapped in my head in a discordant chorus, making me shake my head and try to dislodge them. “Just shut the fuck up. You do this every god damn day.”

  “Well fuck you too. Shows what I get for being nice, huh, you melodramatic snake licker.”

  I raised an eyebrow at the term even as my other eye squinted, my shoulders writhing for a moment in false laughter. “You’re not being nice. You’re being selfish and we all know it… you all want something from me.”

  As if the derisive statement was an invitation, I was inundated by voices, young and old. Human, hissing, and growling. They made dozens of demands for food, companionship, pleasure, books.

  Visions flowed through my mind of fire, schematics unfolding in my mind’s eye, the configuration for a shrapnel bomb combined with a mental flash of my school’s boiler room door.

  Dozens of images assaulted me; flashes of memory exact locations of tools I owned, nuts and bolts and spare parts in scrap draws I’d need for it. Then I banished the thoughts.

  “I’m not fucking bombing my graduation okay… for the last fucking time it’s not happening. Stop! Asking!”